“I don’t want to do it! I should just drop out!” I yelled. There are only two terms left, but I’ve got much better things I can be doing with my time. Like not being here. But I’m stuck here; doing work I don’t want to do, being more stressed than I need to be.
I’m sitting at my desk, trying to do work, when my best friend comes in. Well, she used to be. But all the stress has really built up. I started smoking to try to deal with it, and she doesn’t approve. She begs me to stop, but I see no other way.
So every night, I do my homework, find time for a smoke break, and continue. It’s better than dropping out, right? People should see things my way. I never get a break. I hate that she doesn’t want to talk to me anymore, but what else can I do?

It’s 5-0, bottom of the seventh, your team is down, and you are coming up to bat. You have 2 options. You can give up before you even get up there, before the inning even starts, or you can go up there saying “I’m going to take the best three swings of my life” and give your team a chance at making that comeback.
Whether or not you actually get a hit, and keep your team alive doesn’t matter as much as the decision that you make. To give up before your at bat, is to fail, is to not succeed. By giving up, and showing that you give up, you bring the rest of your team down with you. Even if it is not a team thing, more so an individual thing, the people around you will also be brought down in some way or another. To take that chance, see what you can do, that is to succeed, that determines whether your at bat was “successful” or not.
Success means different things to different people. To some, it’s achieving something, becoming well-known, and the wealth that goes along with it. To others, it’s passing a test, a class, an interview, a tryout, anything that applies. To me, success is simply not giving up. Doing your best, trying your hardest, when the only possible outcome seems like a lose-lose situation.
Success is all about choice, and what a person does when it comes time for her to make that important choice. It’s about doing the right thing when she has the option of doing the wrong. Instinct tells her to give up, once the situation she is looking at is leaning towards a negative outcome. Her instinctual reaction is not always right, but sometimes what she decides to do is what is easiest. And what is easiest is not always what is best, it rarely is.
It can be as simple as what you decide to do in that game, or as important as passing high school, passing college, or making a life for yourself. Whether or not you put in the effort, the time, or the will to achieve a goal determines what the outcome is. It’s just as easy to give up in either circumstance, though the result of some of your actions can be life-changing.
Success, to me, is the way you get through life, and handle the hard times. It’s about not bringing you morale down, or the morale of those around you. To not give up and always keep going, no matter what. Like my one teacher says, “Go, kid, go” and “never give up!”